How Freddie Kitchens stacks up against coaches Browns will face

Saturday

Freddie Kitchens and the head coaches he will oppose have fascinating things to talk about (interesting story regarding Mike Vrabel).

We presented an argument that Baker Mayfield gives Cleveland "as much quarterback" as all but a few teams on the 2019 schedule.

Today we examine the case for Freddie Kitchens.

How does the rookie head coach stack up against pilots who will plot against the Browns?

The Mayfield projection was based largely on his rookie year worthy of a No. 1 overall draft pick. The personal-task landscape is substantially more daunting for Kitchens.

While Mayfield sparked much debate as to whether he was worth taking at the top of a draft, plenty of teams would have drafted him later in the first round. Plenty more wish they had him now that they have seen him dart around in an orange helmet.

Kitchens is more like the undrafted free agent who caught everybody by surprise (although maybe not John Dorsey, who quietly gave him the title of "assistant head coach" when he hired him in January of 2018).

Kitchens is a first-time chief who will face four other newbie NFL head coaches. Two have conventional credentials.

Vic Fangio (Broncos) is a big name in modern defense, 19 years an NFL coordinator. Brian Flores (Dolphins) has a doctorate from Belichick University, having spent the last 15 years with the Patriots.

The odd couple is Kliff Kingsbury (Cardinals), who never coached in the NFL before 2019, and Zac Taylor (Bengals), who as recently as 2017 was an "assistant wideouts coach" with the Rams.

On the flip side, Kitchens will spend much of his season game planning against the best of the establishment.

Belichick (Browns at New England, Oct. 27) landed his first NFL coaching job before Kitchens was two months old. His 292-134 head coaching record includes Cleveland's most recent playoff victory (1994 season) and a "W" in this year's Super Bowl.

Mike Tomlin might be in a career slump, but the worst of his eight seasons since he reached his second Super Bowl with Pittsburgh was 8-8. If the Steelers were a mess last year, it was a 9-6-1 mess.

John Harbaugh likewise has slipped since leading Baltimore to postseasons from 2008-2012. Yet, his teams have improved from 5-11 in 2015 to 8-8 in 2016 to 9-7 in 2017 to an AFC-North-champ 10-6 in 2018.

McVay (Rams at Cleveland Sept. 22) was NFL Coach of the Year in 2017 and in position to beat Belichick in Super Bowl 53.

Accounting for two games apiece against Tomlin and Harbaugh, that's seven games of "Freddie vs. the All-Stars."

Taylor, who will send the Bengals against Kitchens twice in December, was tight ends coach at Texas A&M the year Johnny Manziel arrived in 2011. He studied Mayfield long before knowing he would face him twice a year. He grew up in Norman, Oklahoma, but wasn't a good enough quarterback to be recruited by the hometown Sooners. His father was an Oklahoma defensive captain.

Taylor and Kingsbury could have a long conversation about some of this. Kingsbury was Mayfield's head coach at Texas Tech in 2013. In 2012, he was Manziel's coordinator at A&M.

Now, Kingsbury is top dog on the team that drafted Mayfield's Oklahoma replacement, Kyler Murray.

Kyle Shanahan, who was Manziel's coordinator in Cleveland in 2014, is 10-22 in two years with the 49ers. The fact the 49ers landed a Monday night game (Oct. 7) against the suddenly popular Browns tells you somebody thinks Shanahan can win if Jimmy Garoppolo can play.

Kitchens' opener will be against Mike Vrabel, who went 9-7 in his first year with the Titans. One of the wins was 34-10 over Belichick, for whom Vrabel played eight seasons.

A fun talking point for Kitchens and Vrabel: Ohio State's only loss in Vrabel's final year as a Buckeyes defensive star was to Michigan; Michigan's next game was a bowl loss to an Alabama team quarterbacked by Kitchens.

Kitchens' first road game will be against Adam Gase, a former boy wonder with battle scars (fired after going 23-25 with the Dolphins). Gase's coordinators are Gregg Williams, who was 5-3 as Browns interim head coach, and Dowell Loggains, Manziel's 2014 position coach in Cleveland. Adding to the fun: Kitchens and Gase were fellow graduate assistants under Nick Saban at LSU in the year 2000.

Sean McDermott (Bills at Cleveland, Nov. 10) was in his first year piloting Buffalo when he got to the playoffs with Tyrod Taylor at quarterback. Kitchens spent his first season in Cleveland on the team that traded a Round 3 pick to get Taylor.

Kitchens will get plenty of work against some of the reputed offensive whizzes. McDermott is one of the handful with a defensive background (eight-year NFL coordinator before getting his chance with Buffalo).

Kitchens' counterparts feature the older crowd. Belichick and Carroll both are 67. Fangio's first shot comes at age 60. Harbaugh is 56.

Kitchens, 44, is in a cluster of field bosses in their mid-40s. Vrabel will be 44 in August. Tomlin turned 47 recently. McDermott is 45.

Then there is the young crowd, Gase (41), Shanahan (39), Kingsbury (39), Flores (38), Taylor (36) and McVay (33).

Dorsey has built a roster that demands Kitchens be good at his job. For the Browns to reach expectations, he needs to come of age, say, in August.

Fine with Freddie. As he noted the day he was hired, "It literally drives me crazy that people were happy with 7-8-1 ... literally crazy. Nobody here wants that."

In the same breath, he added, "We only have one goal here, and that is to hoist the Lombardi Trophy."

While he didn't say "right away," he seems not to be decline the possibility.

One theory has it that if young Baker is enough quarterback, newbie Freddie can be enough head coach.

Reach Steve at 330-580-8347 or steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP

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